BIRTHDAY- FRANCES

Birthday | Short film from smider on Vimeo.

MRANG

Media language

Mise en scene
Editing
Camera
Sound

The film starts with a black screen then suddenly the title 'BIRTHDAY' appears in block white capitals. The title is only on screen for a couple of seconds then the screen cuts to black again.

As soon as the title disappears a non-diegetic music sound track starts playing, straight away the eerie sounding piano music creates a tense atmosphere for the audience before we are even introduced to anything yet. The first scene we see is a POV MS shot as if the camera is watching from the corner. We see an elderly man sitting on the edge of a bed who's costume consists of a white shirt grey trousers and braces on his trousers. The bedroom he is sitting in has low key lighting and is furnished in 1950's wallpaper and furniture, the room appears to belong to the elderly man. A CU of the protagonist sitting on the bed shows that he is just sitting staring into space. The next scene we are shown by a tracking shot, an elderly lady lying in a bath tub, this could maybe be the elderly man's wife.









 The non-diegetic music sound track of a high pitched piano being played carries on however is now accompanied by the sound of water dripping out of a tap. A shallow depth of field shot shows the elderly woman's staring up at the ceiling just like the male character in the scene before was, this suggests that they could be thinking about something, perhaps each other. The female character has a straight facial expression which makes it hard for the audience to see what she is feeling or thinking about. The next scene cuts to an ECU of stuffed birds on a mantle piece, the male protagonist then walks into the shot and we are shown by an ECU that he has just picked some cuff links up from the side of the mantle piece. There is still no dialogue that has taken place so far which makes it hard for the audience to know what is exactly happening at this moment in time. An MS shows the man, still standing staring at the wall putting on a brown jacket. The setting is still lit with low levels of lighting however there is a spot light on the top of the male characters head which suggests that he is key character in this short film. The scene then cuts to a CU of the female character, now out of the bath, putting on face powder, her facial expression shows she is slightly smiling to herself as if she is enjoying putting on her makeup. She is dressed in a beige blouse and her hair and makeup are both done nicely which suggests that she is getting ready to go somewhere.

 She looks lovingly at her powder sponge as she puts it back in the pot that she got it from, the scene then suddenly cuts to a tracking shot of the elderly man walking over to a chest of drawers, perhaps in the living room. He has a stern facial expression, which is shown by a CU, as he opens the drawer. An MS shows the elderly man reaching into the drawer and taking out an item wrapped in a cloth, it is unclear to the audience what the item is yet and we are yet to find out.









As he gets the item out of the drawer the non diegetic music gets louder as he picks up the object and he seems to be really careful as he does so. This suggests that the item in the cloth could be important to him. The next scene shows a MS of the elderly woman looking into a mirror as she brushes her hair and the non diegetic music appears to be getting louder and louder, creating tension as if a climax is going to take place any time soon. The scene then cuts to the elderly sitting on the bed again unwrapping the object from the cloth he took out of the drawer the prop he is holding is a gun. A low angle CU shows the man, who's costume has now changed into a black suit and tie and a white shirt. We hear the diegetic sound of the male protagonist loading the gun as he puts in the bullets, with still a blank facial expression showing no emotion. The scene then cuts to an out of focus camera shot of a prop which is a birthday cake with a lit candle on top. This prop is significant because due to the title 'BIRTHDAY' it tells us that it is one of the two characters birthdays in this short film.











 The shot of the birthday cake then cuts to a MS of the elderly man sitting on the bed again and we are shown by an ECU that he is looking at an old photograph of a young boy blowing out a candle on a cake this creates enigma for the audience as we are unsure who this young boy is. He strokes the photograph lovingly and his facial expression softens as if he is remembering happy memories, maybe this young boy is him when he was younger. This also suggests that maybe the birthday cake we saw in earlier scenes is his and it is his birthday in the film. The next scene is a CU of the birthday cake and it shows to be the exact same cake as we saw in the photograph. The scene after the birthday cake is LS of the elderly woman sitting in a room full of books on shelves drinking out of a glass chalice, it is unclear what it is in the chalice, perhaps its alcohol. As the elderly woman swallows her drink her facial expression suggests that she is unhappy. The scene cuts to the male protagonist standing in front of the mirror holding the prop (gun) to his head and then from a LS we see the photograph the male character was holding in previous scenes, lying on the bed that the man was sitting once before. The males facial expressions shows that he is scared and unable to pull the trigger of the gun so he puts it down.


 An MS shows the man sitting back down on the bed wiping tears from his eyes, he puts the prop (gun) down on the bed side table and picks up another prop which is a telephone. This scene is filmed by a hand held camera which suggests that the male character is being watched from across the room. As he dials the number the non diegetic music goes very high pitched and then a ringing sound start to play suggesting that something bad is going to happen in the next scene. Through a MS we see the man waiting for whoever he's ringing to answer the phone the scene then cuts to the elderly woman sprawled out on the bed and the telephone on the bedside table next to her is ringing which makes is obvious that the person the elderly male character was ringing is the female character. An LS shows us that the elderly has a significant prop next to her, a box of opened pills spilled out on the bed next to her. The low levels of lighting has a high grey scale which creates a dark atmosphere and it makes it clear to the audience that something bad has happened, the elderly woman has overdosed on pills and killed herself. The non-diegetic music sound track starts to play, as a birds eye tracking shot shows us the dead woman lying there with open eyes. The last shot we see is a CU of the birthday cake with the candle blown out. After this scene the screen cuts to black.

Representation

The social group represented are elderly people and they are represented in a negative manner as it suggests that not all elderly people are mentally stable. Femininity is also represented because it shows the elderly lady putting on her makeup and wanting to look nice which is what most women tend to do in this day and age.

Narrative

The short film has a linear structure as it is in chronological order. The story appears to be that the elderly man and woman were once together but then broke up for some reason and it is the elderly man's birthday and he thinks of killing himself with a gun but then decides to ring his ex wife however she has already killed herself. The plot doesn't tell us this and it is up to the audience to work out the story line between the two characters.

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes identified action codes, which tells us an action will take place and allows the spectator to predict the plot. When we see the elderly male character take the gun out of the drawer the audience can guess by this action code that something significant is going to happen with this gun, perhaps someone gets shot or shoots themselves. However, the plot twists when the male protagonist goes to shoot himself in the head but then changes his mind, only to turn out that it is in fact the female protagonist who kills herself.

Genre

The genre of this short film appears to be a thriller due to the constant genre codes of low levels of lighting and high pitched music.